TheMitchells

Is anyone else watching these? I've gone back to the beginning and watching from the start. But whenever Gearoge goes back to see the finished building, the furnishings and accessories look more like a magazine shoot than the builders home! Do they just get interior designers to fill it for the tv before the actual builders/renovators fill it with their own stuff? I do love what they are all doing and its great to see the old buildings come to life again and have a new purpose.

Picture 1 shows the south facing roof. As you can see on the left the roof doesnt go all the way to the top. When we do the whole new extension, it will go all the way down the side of the bungalow. From the right blue arrow to the left blue arrow, extending the flat roof extension all across, and the garden wall (yellow) will have to go. But we hope to have a pitched roof, with vaulted ceiling in the new part. The car is parked pointing at the new shower room. Hope that clarifies things.

It has taken a while but i have just realised that air to air heat pumps are quite different to ASHP which is what i thought you were recommending. Air to Air ones sound like a possibility. I am hoping to speak to CVC soon as recommended by @Nickfromwales and shall see if they think air to air would be suitable. And I'm off to the NEC on Saturday for the renovation show so am hoping there will be plenty there to research.

Not much. maybe an extra panel or two but not much more. We have added a shower room to the side, but the roof does not go all the way to the top of the main roof. Our new extension would. I have asked about the inverters and am waiting for a reply.

Forgive my ignorance, but how would that heat them? By heating the storage unit during the day? If so, I'll take a look. We didnt think we would change the ehating system until we did the whole renovation and are hoping the storage unit will carry on for a few more years. It is about 50 years old already and one electric coil did break recently so it is being heated by 2 coils. But as the place doesnt have radiators, we hoped to not have to install them with a change to a new heating system. Particularly as I would like UFH in the new extension and kitchen. I'd leave the bedrooms and bathroom as is. (ie no UFH). I would like to insulate the floor and would look to dig out the kitchen but leave the rest (bedrooms and bathrooms) so we can add insulation and UFH to the rear half. The windows are okay at the front - maybe I'd just need to add airtight tapes to minimise draughts/airflow, being in mind I would like MVHR. The bedrooms are next to a fairly busy road and I would hope to be able to have fresh air without having the windows open as I am a very light sleeper.

It could be because of the distance between the bungalow and the garage where we were planning to put the battery. we'd need a trench and armoured cable. At the moment, we have put the PV on hold till we know we can do it without it being affected by later works on the extension. And the extension would increase the roof slightly, so it may be worth waiting till we can do the max size we can fit.

which can be quite a lot. They seem to have the washer on most days and dont seem to understand the concept of defrosting food during the day, rather than trying to cook it from frozen! 😄 I dont mind the long payback, we hope to be there for many years after Mum and Dad no longer need it.

After my OH's reluctance to go for PV soon, I needed a plan. We had already talked and visited a local Eco Architect company when researching for our planned Passivhaus for the time we thought we had a plot. I therefore got in touch to see what they offered. We had a zoom meeting when i explained my plans. Basically i wanted someone to help me plan the stages we could do now to help improve the parents comfort, with the intention to do the whole extension renovation when they don't need the bungalow anymore. So I was thinking cavity wall insulation/triple glazed windows to the front bedrooms (we wouldnt change this when extending) and PV with battery. But on talking to the architect, it was suggested for them to help, we needed the long term plan finalised first, which i guess makes sense. They suggested they help us come up with a plan for the extension and then they could make suggestions for several levels of build - Passihaus, AEBC retrofit standard at 50kWh/m2 and EnerPHit. they produced a proposal;- Helping to prepare a phased approach will be a further cost which could be up to £2k. But when I said that my planned budget for the whole job was £100k, I was astonished when the architect suggested we'd need up to twice that! That just would not be doable - the place would never be worth that much being spent on it. I dont mind spending a good amount to make it a lovely place for us to live into our old age but at that rate, it would be cheaper to just make it comfortable with a standard extension and spend the rest on additional heating to keep us warm. We'd never get anywhere near that back, even with lower bills. My calculations - PV and Battery 10k new windows to front and cavity insulation 10k new extension to rear 80k including airtightness tapes, underfloor heating in the rear half, MVHR. But maybe I am being unrealistic. It woud not be a huge extension and we'd keep most of the internal walls. The plan above shows the extra space we have to work with. When he did the shower room, Patrick moved the wall out slightly in the porch, and when he put in the window, he added a lintel suitable for the front door to be moved to the side, leaving the old front door as the door into the new utility room. we were already thinking ahead. The plan now is to have a chat with our builder, Patrick, and see what he suggests. I know he has done a Passivhaus and so knows how to build well. I trust him to do an excellent job and with the advice of folks on here, I hope to be able to come up with a plan for the extension then a phased scheme of work which hoepfully Patrick can help with. And I am going on an airtightness tape workshop soon so I can help with work too.

While my parents are still in the bungalow, we are reluctant to do any major work as they would not cope with it. However, I am keen to make improvements if possible. The heating system is a large very old solid block in the centre cupboard, heated by electric coils overnight (economy 7) and then blown around the place. It works fine and is quickly heats the place up, which they like. There is gas in the road but not to the property and when they needed a new hot water tank, we installed a new one. But their electricity bills are rather large! They like it warm with a couple of extra night storage heaters on full most of the time and an electric fire in the lounge for when its cold🫣. So as their roof is south facing with no shading, I thought it makes sense to add PV and could be used to help bring down their bills (the OH says it will not be of much help). Adding a battery is an option though it may have to go into the garage which is abuot 15/20m away from the main building. We had a quote done but someone a friend recommended. - DATE: 24/05/23 Page 3 of 8 Description of goods and services we will provide… ........................................ Limited recommends the following price proposal based on the information and suitability of your property. This seems quite reasonable and is about £3k less than one we had from Scottish Power who didnt even come and have a look. At least the first chap came and measured up and had a good look round the whole property. BUT, the OH is quite worried that if we had it installed now, when we did do the main renovation, it would all need to be changed. he thinks it would be better to wait and do it all at once. Which I can understand. On the other hand, we could be having free elctricity for several years..... Time for a think........

We bought the bungalow in 2018 to move my elderly parents closer to us following Mum's stroke. While she recovered, they needed help most days, i was spending a lot of time travelling back and forward so it made sense to move them closer. As they lived in Windsor, we could not afford to move that way and I was very suprised when they agreed to our suggestion to move closesr to us. But it has proved very valuable in the years since. I think we were very lucky in that when we started looking, this property was up for sale. Its a 15 min drive for me but not too close. The layout was workable and it came with a garage, workshop and a large garden, mostly on the outside, wrapping round the corner plot. And it was perfect fo a Motorhome, which we'd be wanting for years but had nowhere to keep it. 😃 Our first change was to add a shower room as they both struggle to get in and out of a bath. We had a good builder, Patrick, who we had used on our previous renovation (Scooby Cottage) though we did have to wait nearly a year before he could start work. Having the shower room made a big difference to them and as we had applied for planning permission, we had a free shot at another for 6 months. So i drew up plans for an extension to the kitchen, as it is not very large with only a small amount of worktop. After receiving pp, we decided that the parents would not cope with the disruption so left it. But now we are looking to the future and what we can do. In the long term, when parents no longer need it, we want to extend the kitchen and across the back, to give a larger open plan space, and move in ourselves. Selling our current house to pay for the renovation. We dont need a lot of space and the bedrooms are fine, we'd use one and convert the other into a dressing/storage room. But after wanting to build a Passivhaus for years, and hearing about the benefits of living in such from many on here, I am hoping we can renovate to a good enough standard to give us a warm, low energy, home without any draughts. So thats the plan! I hope you'll enjoy the 'journey' as we progress through the renovation. Next time - Using an Architect firm. 🤔

Wow - this is on the market for £1.2million. Seems Passive House, as thye call it, is worth paying for. Tho' maybe thats a normal price for 3 bed detached in St Albans? https://www.rightmove.co.uk/properties/145215260#/?channel=RES_NEW

If I add cavity wall insulation to my bungalow, with the intention of making it as airtight and insulated as possible for a limited budget, do I need to cap the top of the cavity? I do plan to remove the first couple of layers of tiles and try to join the cavity insulation to the attic insulation. So presumably not. I shall add something to ensure airflow into the roofspace. Then i need to ask about the vapour barrier and the best way to add that. But one thing at a time. 🙂

Have plenty of them in the garden - yucca leaves, that is. just need to find time now! 😄

well, I did not think they had anything to do with flower arranging but seems they may be. Also found a cuple of pictures which use them to shred flax. Thanks all - will keep them, just in case I need flax or similar shredded.😃

These were found recently in a tool shed and before I get rid of them, I hoped someone could tell me what they are. They are very heavy (all metal) and the prongs are exceedingly stiff and sharp. Any thoughts?